


Underestimated

by vix_spes



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Case Fic, Character Study, Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-09
Updated: 2011-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-11 12:26:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4435448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vix_spes/pseuds/vix_spes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John takes great delight in proving Anderson wrong at a crime scene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underestimated

The crazy thing was that really, none of them should have been surprised. Not really. Well, maybe Donovan and Anderson could be but Sherlock and Lestrade didn’t have any excuse. Despite all of Sherlock’s comments to the contrary, Lestrade really wasn’t stupid – he just wasn’t a genius on the level of the Holmes brothers. He certainly had been able to work out why Sherlock had suddenly stopped talking in the middle of his deductions of the shooter during that case of the serial suicides. It certainly didn’t take a genius to work out that the shooter was Sherlock’s supposed new flatmate. He’d been a little surprised by the other man at first – when he’d gone to ask for Sherlock’s help, the fact that another man was in the room had barely registered with him. Now the two of them were inseparable; you didn’t get one of them without the other.  
  
He couldn’t work out how John was managing it; the man was a doctor for god’s sake yet he turned up to nearly every single crime scene with Sherlock. He wasn’t complaining though. It was nice to have somebody sane there to help act as a buffer between Sherlock and Anderson, even Donovan on some occasions. Besides that, he was a genuinely nice bloke, seriously down to earth and they had had some good nights down the pub even if they did disagree whether football or rugby was better. It had been several weeks since they had been forced to call Sherlock in; none of the cases that they’d been dealing with had necessitated calling the other man in. Today was completely different. They’d been called out to a supposed crime-scene yet when they arrived there were few signs that a crime had taken place. The only thing that could suggest a crime had been committed was the fact that there was a dead body in the middle of the living room. Oh, and the fact that the dead body had no connection to the house it had been found in whatsoever. There were no signs of forced entry, no sign that anything had been stolen … they were at a complete loss. The only thing that had them convinced that it was a crime scene was the fact that Anderson was adamant that the victim had been murdered. Asphyxiated. Lestrade wasn’t convinced though; he had this gut feeling that it wasn’t quite as simple as that and so he called Sherlock in.  
  
Sherlock had arrived in his usual over-dramatic manner with John following behind, dressed rather smarter than his usual jumper and jeans so he’d obviously been working at the surgery today. While Sherlock prowled around the house doling out deductions like sweets at Halloween, John wandered around before stepping forward at Sherlock’s request and Lestrade’s agreement and, pulling on a pair of surgical gloves, taking a look at the body and doing his own examination.  
  
“What was your cause of death Anderson?”  
  
“Asphyxiation. It is patently obvious that this is murder.”  
  
“It wasn’t murder.”  
  
Anderson immediately swung around at John’s words. “What do you mean it wasn’t murder? Of course it was murder. It’s obvious.”  
  
“It’s not obvious, I’m afraid that you’ve come to the wrong conclusion.” John paused as everybody slowly turned round to stare at him and listen to what he was saying. Sherlock, in particular, was watching like a hawk. “This man didn’t die of asphyxiation. This isn’t a murder case.”  
  
“Well what was it then? You may be a doctor but I’m the forensics expert here.”  
  
“Why are you so convinced that the man died of asphyxiation? There’s nothing to suggest that was the cause of death.”  
  
“You mean beyond the blue-tinged lips, blood-shot eyes, the complete lack of evidence that he suffered from blunt force trauma or any other kind of fatal wound. Asphyxiation is the best explanation.”  
  
“That may be true but if it was asphyxiation then how were they killed? There’s no sign of ligature marks, there’s no bruising on the body and there’s no sign of a plastic bag anywhere in this room at least. It couldn’t have been asphyxiation; the body would provide us with the evidence. It was something else.”  
  
“Well what was it then? Surely you’ve managed to work it out?” Anderson’s sneer was clearly visible on his face and everybody else was watching with obvious interest. Even Sherlock was showing an interest, although that was probably out of his desire to see Anderson humiliated.  
  
“It was opiate poisoning, or at least that’s my best guess. You’d need a pathologist to confirm it of course, but given the signs I’d say that it was fairly obvious.”  
  
Anderson opened his mouth to protest again but Lestrade silenced him before he could say anything by holding his hand up. “John, carry on. He wasn’t murdered? It was an overdose?”  
  
“Yes, I’d say it was opiates but I couldn’t tell you exactly what; there are too many variables. I can see why Anderson thought it was asphyxiation – I mean, the eyes are bloodshot and there’s a slight blue tint to the lips and fingernails but, as I said, there are no signs of ligature marks and there are no plastic bags around that I can see. The pupils are barely pinpricks which can be a sign of an overdose. There are traces of vomit in the bin in that corner of the room and there’s a lingering smell on the body as well. If you look closely here,” he gently raised the sleeve on one outstretched arm, “there’s faint evidence of track-marks so whatever they’ve been taking, they’ve been injecting it at some point or another. In addition, there’s rigidity in the abdomen which would normally suggest that the bowel’s ruptured which can happen in some cases with opiate poisoning.”  
  
“So it’s not murder? Are you absolutely positive because that will change everything. It won’t be a murder case but we still need to work out what he was doing here.”  
  
“I’m positive it’s not murder. Cause of death was by opiate poisoning, a pathologist will be able to confirm what kind of opiates.”  
  
All of sudden John seemed to realise that he was the centre of everybody’s attention, something that he wasn’t used to. At all. He was far more used to standing in the background, taking the odd notes as he watched Sherlock perform his usual routine of being brilliant and being slightly awestruck in the process. Instead, it was quite a head rush the knowledge that everybody was watching him and looking to him for the answers. John rather enjoyed the looks of disbelief that he was receiving from Donovan and Anderson, the latter’s tinged with an element of hatred as well but if the guy missed something like that and then refused to accept the fact that he was wrong then he deserved to be humiliated in front of the rest of his team. What he couldn’t understand was the look on Sherlock’s face. It was almost predatory, the way that he was eyeing John. It was also remarkably similar to the way that he looked every time there was a new case.  
  
“Sherlock, any ideas on what we’re looking at here?”  
  
“Lestrade, I’m sure that you can manage without us. Something’s come up and John and I must return to Baker Street.”  
  
“Sherlock, what are you talking about?”  
  
“Baker Street John. Now.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you would prefer to comment on LJ, you can do so [here](http://vix-spes.livejournal.com/74591.html)


End file.
